An 89-year-old Mayo man has been jailed for three years for the historical sexual assault of a five-year-old child.
Pat Salmon, of Rockfield, Knock, Claremorris, pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to five counts of sexual assault at his home on dates in 1995. He has no previous convictions.
The injured party wished for Salmon to be named in the reporting of this case, but did not wish for her name to be published. Salmon was aged 59 when the offence took place and she was a five-year-old child.
In her victim impact statement to the Central Criminal Court, the abused woman said: “You taught me fear, and you also taught me how to hide it.”
“You masqueraded as a normal person; you placed yourself in a self-proclaimed pillar of society. You were seen as a pillar in Knock, how could I go up against you?”
Sentencing Pat Salmon yesterday Ms Justice Caroline Biggs said the complainant in the case was “so very young”.
Ms Justice Biggs said the abuse by Salmon involved “planned, considered acts, done for sexual gratification”. She said the circumstances of the abuse were “blatantly sexual” and a “grotesque violation”.
The judge noted that she was bound by the maximum penalty of five years as set out by law at the time of Salmon’s offending and that she was also obliged to impose a sentence that was proportionate.
She noted the mitigating factors included Salmon’s guilty plea, his old age and ill-health along with the fact he has no previous convictions. “He is entering his last decade,” she said.
The judge set a headline sentence of five years, which she reduced to three years taking the mitigating factors into account.
She thanked the complainant for taking part in the process, telling her: “Unless we have women like you willing to make statements of this nature, these cases can’t be prosecuted.” She wished her well in the future.